The optical transmitter and receiver of the invention includes: a variable dispersion compensator that performs wavelength dispersion compensation on an optical signal of a differential M-phase modulation format input from a transmission path; an optical amplifier that compensates an optical loss in the variable dispersion compensator; a delay interferometer that delays and interference processes the optical signal output from the optical amplifier; and a photoelectric conversion circuit that photoelectric converts the output light from the delay interferometer to generate a demodulated electric signal. The output level of the optical amplifier is decreased at the time of start up to deteriorate the OSNR of the optical signal input to the photoelectric conversion circuit, to thereby realize a state in which an error occurs more easily, and then optimization control of the variable dispersion compensator and the delay interferometer is started. As a result optimization of the dispersion compensation amount and the phase control amount in the optical receiver corresponding to the differential M-phase modulation format can be performed in a short time.